On the Cote de Texas.....

I spent the weekend in Houston, TX - remember how I mentioned I was going someplace warm and sunny? Warm, comparitively at least for a northerner like me, but it ended up being gray and drizzly unfortunately :-(

I spent Saturday with the super stylish Joni of Cote de Texas. We met for lunch at the yummy Raven Grill (which has an adorable trained pet chicken roaming around the front of the restaurant, seen below) in Rice Village and then hit some of her favorite shops, many of which she has mentioned in her blog. The shopping is as fabulous as Joni claims and her taste was exquisite of course! She kept pointing out hidden treasures that I might have missed otherwise and was full of great stories about each store! I coudln't have had a more knowledgeable tour guide. I'll show some of my favorite pieces from our adventure. I forget the names of some of the stores but will write them in where I can remember!By far, my favorite shop was 'AREA'. Unfortunately as I was busy shopping I didn't take many photos, just these 2. The store has a great mix of antiques and modern pieces, books and gifts -all put together very creatively, sort of like a fabulous house. I could have spent all day in this store alone but there was so much more to see.....

Joni has blogged about Shabby Slips, my next stop.Shabby Slips had just repainted the walls white from gray for a very fresh and open feeling in the store. A mix of beautiful antiques with a few upholstered pieces thrown in to live up to their name filled the space completely!The last store Watkins & Culver, adjacent to shabby slips, was so exquisite. The walls were newly faux finished and were really just incredible. They looked like 200 yr old stucco walls in Europe. All of the pieces were out of my price range but so fun to see including some really unusual pieces there that I think Joni will mention later this week. I ended up getting a really great candle here as a hostess gift. I recommend anyone to go shopping in Rice Village!I was very tempted to buy these 2 pastel drawings above - very picasso'esque of harlequins in beautiful colors.photo at the top of the post is of a wall of amazing framed antique 'weeds' available at Neal and Co.